Shoe Review: New Balance Vazee Prism (Women’s)

Disclaimer: I was not payed by New Balance to review this product nor am I sponsored by New Balance. This review is of my own experience running in them and I purchased these running shoes out of my own pocket.

Let me start by saying that I was a little hesitant at first about returning back to run in New Balance shoes. Most of this hesitation was due to me wanting to return to Brooks running shoes. Throughout my high school cross country career, I switched over to the minimalist end of the running shoe spectrum and fell in love with the Pure Connect line from Brooks. As comfortable and as light as these shoes were, I realized that the trade off was durability and had to replace my shoes more often. Long story short, I tried running in Mizuno (I didn’t mind it) and now I am back to the original brand that I ran in during middle school, New Balance.

After browsing through Amazon one evening (after I had finished my homework, of course!), I came across the Vazee line from New Balance. According to their website, the line features “lightweight running shoes designed for speed”. If you are curious, you can learn more about the Vazee line here. During my search for new running shoes, I read many positive reviews about the Vazee Prisms on Amazon. In addition to the praise of how lightweight and supportive these shoes, it was really the color and price that solidified the decision for me. Since purple is my favorite color and Amazon was selling them for around $44 (a steal since these particular shoes come in at $100 retail), I ordered them right away!

As you can probably imagine, I was completely ecstatic when these shoes had been delivered to me. My first impression upon opening the box was “Wow, I can’t wait to try these out!” The next morning, I went on my first long run of my half marathon training with my new shoes. That run was six miles of pain free bliss. When I started running consistently again, the life of my trusty, turquoise blue Mizunos was about to come at an end. My legs could really feel it since my calves would burn with soreness after every run. After that first run in the New Balance Prisms, I came up with a Pro-Con list:

Pros:

Fits like a glove, the upper forms comfortably around my foot. My arches feel very supported (I have high arches, causing my footfalls to supinate at times) and I don’t supinate as much.

The laces are stretchy! I was pleasantly surprised by this because it was the first time I’ve seen laces like this before. I’m not quite sure if stretchy laces are standard in the world of running shoes, but way to go New Balance!

Lives up to its purpose of being built for speed. I did some hill repeats last Sunday and these shoes are light enough to run uphill; they didn’t feel heavy at all and the heel-toe phase was quite smooth and responsive.

Price: At $44 it’s practically a steal! I probably should’ve ordered a second pair..

Color: Aside from purple, these shoes come in four other colors (black, light gray, and hot pink). To put it simply, these shoes look cool!

Cons:

The ankle is cut a little low (for me), making it feel like my heels slide around a bit when I run. I easily fixed this by tying my laces a different way (I laced mine like #3).

It did feel a little more stiff at first, compared to running in Brooks. This issue resolved itself the more I started running in them; now it feels like the insoles have molded perfectly to my feet!

Final Verdict: 9/10 would buy again (and possibly will in the future, as long as NB keeps making them). I knocked off a point for the slight stiffness I felt during the first run, but in fairness, it’s all relative and I’ve run in Brooks for four years straight, so I’m accustomed to running in softer shoes. Overall, I ran all of my second week of half marathon training in the New Balance Vazee Prisms and am very pleased. From tempo threes to long run sevens, these shoes kept my feet happy and I am very grateful!

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About the Author

Here you'll find my travel adventures, running antics, and college stories as I finish my undergraduate degree. I hope you'll find some inspiration and humor through my posts and maybe even take note of all the beautiful things in your life, too!